How to Travel on a Budget: 20 Savvy Budget Travel Tips to Help You Save Money

If you asked 100 people what stops them from travelling more, how many would respond that money is what stands in their way? My bet is at least 50%. It’s true, travel is expensive and experiences don’t come for free. However, there are many easy ways to cut costs and make your travels hurt your bank account a little bit less.

I travelled quite extensively as a very broke student with all too little money to put towards the travel budget at the end of every month. Even a weekend job can’t fund a two-week tour of 17 European cities! I spent far too much money in many different places and thought up just about every budget travel tip I could possibly imagine because the alternative was not travelling and, well, that certainly wasn’t an option!

In this post, I’ve compiled all my best budget travel tips that cover everything from planning beforehand to the trip itself, with advice for accommodation, transport, food, experiences and more!

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Note: These tips are written with European travel in mind, as it’s the only continent I have travelled in. They can definitely be applied when thinking about how to travel on a budget around the world, but some tips might not be as relevant or effective.

Budget Travel Tips For Planning Your Trip

Decide on Your Top Travel Priorities

The first thing you should do when planning to travel on a budget is to establish what your top priorities are. When travelling on a budget, you’ll realistically have to make compromises at some point, and if you establish what is most important to you when travelling, you’ll know exactly where you can tighten the purse strings and where you’ll want to make space in your budget for a little splurge.

I’m not a fan of hostels as I really appreciate my own space to relax when travelling, so I’m happy to spend a little more money on a hotel or apartment rather than staying in a shared dorm. On the other hand, I’m a foodie, but not one with expensive taste. With that in mind, I opt for local cheap eats and street food rather than luxury restaurant meals, and this keeps my food budget down.

Top Tip: I have learned what’s important to me when travelling through experience, so don’t worry if you’re not sure of your top travel priorities yet. After a trip or two, you’ll soon know what you want to focus your budget on.

Travel Out of Season

The travel year is split into three seasons – peak, off, and shoulder. From a budget travel point of view, avoid the peak season! Although it usually has the best weather, it’s the busiest and most expensive time to travel. The cheapest time to travel is the off-season, where the prices are lowest and the crowds are smallest. However, travel wise this isn’t a great time to visit a destination – the weather is the least desirable and most unpredictable, and many restaurants and businesses operate on reduced hours or close completely due to the lack of visitors during this time.

The sweet spot of travel seasons is called the shoulder season. There are two shoulder seasons in each calendar year, in between the peak and off seasons, and combine the best of each one. If you’re travelling on a budget, visiting a destination in its shoulder season means you can combine cheaper prices with an uncompromised travel experience. You’ll often find that you’ll even have an improved travel experience by opting for the shoulder season over the peak season, as you’ll still enjoy nice weather, with fewer crowds.

Travel Seasons Breakdown

Be Flexible With Your Destination

One of the best ways to save money when planning a trip is to be flexible with your dates (which I’ll talk about in a little bit). However, many people have restricted times each year that they can book a getaway and miss out on the chance.

If you’re not completely set on your destination but you have fixed dates, you can use a handy tool on Skyscanner, a flight comparison website, to search for the cheapest flights on a specific date. Simply input where you want to fly from, click the ‘to’ box and a ‘search everywhere’ option should appear (if it doesn’t, start typing ‘everywhere’ and it should come up). Then add your dates and Skyscanner will show you the cheapest places to fly!

This can be a fantastic way to get some inspiration for where to go and discover somewhere new, all whilst saving money. You might even stumble upon an incredible underrated destination that wasn’t on your radar before.

Research Your Destination in Advance

It’s important to remember that when it comes to budget travel, many things are subjective, which is true for the tips you’ve read so far. Travelling out of season, being flexible with your destination, and considering less popular destinations are all great budget travel tips, but they don’t guarantee the cheapest experience.

Different factors can come into play, like a huge summer travel sale or deals on hotels and accommodation. You might find that visiting the capital city of a country is cheaper than visiting a smaller city, and you might find that the peak season is the cheapest time to visit certain destinations.

Take the time to research your intended destination, and search around for some deals – it’ll pay off in the long run.

Budget Travel Tips For Planning Your Transport

Be Flexible With Your Travel Dates

Being flexible with your travel dates can save a huge amount of money when planning your trip, and is definitely one of the best budget travel tips out there.

The concept is quite simple – plan your holiday around the cheapest dates to travel, rather than choosing a trip and having to work with the dates. Of course, this will work best if you have complete flexibility over when you travel, but even a few days of leeway can make a difference to how much you pay. This also works best if you’re planning to fly, as prices tend to fluctuate more here than on trains and buses.

Finding the cheapest flights out there is really easy, as there are several online tools that allow you to be flexible with your travel dates. Google flights is very popular, and my personal favourite is Skyscanner. On Skyscanner, you can select a certain month to search in, and then you’ll see a calendar with prices for each day. The dates are even colour coded to make it as easy as possible for you to find the cheapest price.

Look at Different Modes of Transport

When searching for budget transport options, it’s always best to have a browse around different modes of transport. This doesn’t have to be a thorough search, just a quick check to see what the cheapest option is.

When planning a trip, I will check flights, trains and buses and compare the three. It’s always worth checking, as even if you think you know what the cheapest transport will be, you might find a surprise deal.

Travel Overnight

Choosing to travel to or from your destination overnight can save paying for accommodation for a night, which can save you a good chunk of money!

Choose a night flight, train or bus, and you’ll arrive at your destination in the morning, ready to explore! You’ll have to pay for the transport anyway, and it means your overnight accommodation is sorted as you’ll be in transit.

There are a couple of drawbacks to choosing to travel overnight, so make sure you’re ready for the compromise! These include having to lug your bags around for the morning before you can check into your accommodation, and having a less comfortable night’s sleep, especially if you don’t do well on planes or other transport.

Top Tip: Always remember to be safe, and only travel through the night if you feel comfortable with it. Saving some money isn’t worth risking your safety, and being worried will hamper your travel experience.

Budget Travel Tips for Packing

Pack Light and Only take a Carry-On

When flying during travel, one of the biggest unnecessary expenses can come from paying for baggage, especially if you’re using budget airlines. Travelling with only a carry-on is one of my best budget travel tips as it’s such an easy expense to cut out.

If you’re visiting somewhere for a weekend or long weekend, more often than not you can easily go with just a personal carry-on, like a backpack or small holdall – the ones that Ryanair and other budget airlines let you take on for free. For longer trips, you can get by for up to a month with a carry-on suitcase. Yes, you read that right! Although not included in most budget airline tickets, taking a larger carry-on is usually only a small charge (around £10), and much cheaper than paying for a suitcase to go in the hold.

Pack versatile clothing, cut down on toiletries, and be realistic about how much stuff you’re going to need and want while you’re on the go and travelling. This might be a big compromise for some, but if you’re serious about trying to travel on a budget, this is such a simple way to save some money.

Be Prepared With Travel Necessities

There are certain things that you will always need on your trip. Making sure you pack easily-forgotten travel essentials, like travel adaptors and phone chargers, can avoid hefty charges at the airport or your destination. The prices of essential items are often inflated, especially in popular tourist destinations, as they know people can’t go without them!

Accommodation Tips for Budget Travel

Research Different Accommodation Options

Once again, doing a little extra research before your trip can help save you money in the long run. With so many platforms to find accommodation these days, finding something to fit your budget is relatively straightforward.

Browse hotels, hostels, bed and breakfasts, and rental accommodations in your destination to find the best option for you. It’s important to remember that hotels are not always the most expensive option, especially if you don’t want to share a room at a hostel. The prices of rental accommodation on platforms such as Airbnb have increased a lot in recent years, and they now often outprice hotels or bed and breakfasts.

I recommend checking out an accommodation platform like Agoda. They list all types of accommodation and have regular deals where you can save 5-10%+ on your booking!

Stay Outside of the City Centre

For certain destinations, the outskirts of the city are well connected by public transport, and the money you can save by choosing accommodation a little further out is significant enough to make it worth it.

When you’re searching for accommodation, don’t discredit places outside the city centre, as you could end up with a nicer place to stay, for less money, and be able to hop on a train or bus to get into the city for just a few euros/pounds.

Book Accommodation with a Kitchen

Some rental accommodation, aparthotels, and hostels will have cooking facilities that can save you a lot of money. Although experiencing the foodie delights of a new place is a really important part of travel, even just having one meal a day at your accommodation will set money aside for experiences, or being able to visit more expensive places for the meals you do eat out for, for example.

Grab cereal and milk to fill up for breakfast, pack sandwiches for lunch on the go, or make a cheap pasta dish for dinner. If you’re a foodie lover, this may not be the best of tips for budget travel, but it comes back to the travel priorities that I mentioned at the start of this post, and cutting back on food costs could be the perfect option for you.

Budget Travel Tips For During Your Trip

Eat Street Food

Not every meal you eat has to be a Michelin star dinner. In fact, some cities have their best offerings in food carts on the streets. Street food is an integral part of food culture around Europe and the world – think fries in Belgium, pastel de nata in Portugal, gyros in Greece, and currywurst in Germany.

The best part of street food is that you can try local, authentic food while paying less than £/€10 for a meal that could fill you up enough for lunch or dinner!

Don’t Be Afraid to Eat Fast Food

Even considering the street food above, sometimes the best option is a cheap meal from Mcdonald’s, where you can charge your phone and steal the wifi for a while. This certainly isn’t the most authentic travel experience, but don’t feel any shame in this.

When you’re travelling on a budget, not everything will be Instagram-worthy or aesthetically pleasing, and if you have to eat a happy meal to afford your flight home, then do it!

Walk as Much as Possible

Pack your comfy trainers as you can save money when travelling by walking everywhere. Many European cities, especially capitals and popular destinations, are very walkable and accessible on foot.

By choosing to walk as much as possible on holiday, you’ll be able to wander around all the main sights and attractions, as well as potentially discover some hidden gems that you would have missed otherwise.

Use Public Transport

Of course, some distances are just too far, and there will naturally be times when you do need to rely on some form of transport. However, you can still make this travel budget-friendly by opting to use public transport instead of taxis or other private transportation.

Public transport systems are usually easy to use and well-connected. Most importantly, tickets are incredibly cheap and you’ll find money-saving options for multi-buy tickets or multi-day passes.

Avoid Tourist Traps

Restaurants and shops near the most popular tourist attractions tend to inflate their prices to make the most profit from passing visitors. This is particularly true of food outlets, and these places are notorious for having not only high prices but low-quality food as well.

As a general rule, avoid eating or shopping near a city’s most famous attractions – definitely steer clear of La Rambla in Barcelona, the Colosseum in Rome, and the Champs-Élysées in Paris, for example.

Find Free Things to Do

Anywhere you visit in the world will have free things to do – from museums to parks, street art to panoramic views, or simply wandering around to see what you find, you can easily visit a city with zero budget for activities.

Look out for great travel hacks for travelling on a budget too. For example, did you know you can climb the Elevador de Santa Justa for free in Lisbon? You can save over €5 and still get to enjoy this amazing attraction!

A quick Google search of ‘free things to do in…’ will bring up an abundance of ideas, or check out some of my guides below.

• 10+ Unique And Free Things To Do In Ghent
• 26 Completely Free Things To Do In Barcelona
• Monaco On A Budget: The 11 Best Things To Do For Free

Bonus Tips to Travel on a Budget

Make Use of Student Discounts and Budget Apps

Once again, doing a bit of planning can save a lot of money when travelling. If you’re a student or young person you’ll find a great range of discounts on both attractions and other travel expenses such as transport. Always check for discounts when you’re booking tickets and planning your trip. You can also sign up for some free websites or apps that offer discounts for students, like Unidays or Student Beans.

For non-students, there are still some great ways to find discounts. Although they aren’t quite as abundant as student discounts, there are websites like Groupon that offer some good travel and hotel deals, especially in more popular cities like Paris and Amsterdam.

Get a Duty-Free Bag at the Airport

This budget travel tip is a little open secret for travel lovers and helps you get around the strict hand luggage rules from some well-known budget airlines. Simply take your luggage through security, grab a duty-free bag when airside, and use it to carry a few extra items that won’t fit in your bag. You can ask for a duty-free carrier bag, but I normally get a bag from an airport shop like Boots, as I’ll grab a meal deal for a cheap airport meal.

Although I’ve never known anyone to be challenged for a fully-stuffed duty-free bag, I usually use this travel hack within limits just in case. I’ll use the bag for only one or two extra items that won’t fit comfortably in my bag, but I could really squeeze them in if needed or could wear them as an extra layer. That way, if I was ever to be called up on it, I wouldn’t have to fork out extra money or leave some items behind.

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With 20 amazing budget travel tips under your belt, there’s nothing stopping you from travelling now! A small budget shouldn’t stop anyone from being able to explore the world, and now you know how to travel on a budget, you can get out and discover!

To start planning your budget travel trip, check out some of my many travel guides for inspiration and information!